sounded from the window of Mrs. Trott's room up-stairs.

"Dora, is that John down there?"

"Yes'm. He's just got back."

"Well, tell him to come up here right away."

The order did not need repeating. John stood up, the old practical frown
settling on his face. "I wonder what the ---- she wants?" he growled,
with fierce emphasis on the omitted word. "I thought she was asleep."

"Come on up, John; I want to see you," Mrs. Trott's querulous voice rang
out again, and without replying he turned away. He wore his best suit of
clothes, had recently shaved the fuzz from his face, and looked rather
more manly than formerly as he strode through the doorway and up the
rickety old stairs. Reaching the upper floor, he turned into his
mother's room, unceremoniously pushing the door open and standing on the
threshold, just as Mrs. Trott, in a soiled wrapper, was getting back
into bed after having been to the window. Her hair was in curl-papers,
and the little bristling tufts gave to her face an uncouth, bleak look
and left her penciled brows to a barren waste of forehead. Her cheeks
were still rouged from the night before. A brazen necklace, recently
doffed, had left dark streaks on her powdered bust.

"Why didn't you come on in?" Mrs. Trott demanded, irritably. "What did
you sit down there and talk with that brat for?"

"Oh, I don't know. What do you want?" He frowned in his turn, and all
but growled.

Mrs. Trott kicked the light covering down over her feet and wadded the
pillow so that her head was raised higher. "I've been short of money
ever since you went off," she explained, pettishly. "When you were here
you always had some on Saturday nights, but after you went off you
didn't send as much and Jane and I both got in a hole."

"Well, what do you want now?" he asked. "How much?"

"I'll have to think," Mrs. Trott said. "I borrowed five from Jane
yesterday. We were playing a little game and I lost. I was about to drop
out when Jane backed me. I lost again. My luck was against me, and her,
too. Jane needs the five. She is sick and will have to have a doctor.
You know they insist on cash--they won't come here, the silly fools,
unless you shake the money in their faces, though they run the accounts
of other people for years on a stretch."

"I haven't got that much with me," he gave in, wearily, "but I'm going
to the bank after dinner and will get it."

"How much have you got there?" Mrs. Trott inquired.

"That's _my_